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Fans may need to wait even longer for 'Game of Thrones' season 7

d b weiss david benioff
D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are the two main showrunners for "Game of Thrones." Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Winter may be here, but the seventh season of "Game of Thrones" is still far away. The sixth season concluded on June 26 with an epic finale episode, and fans are already eager for more.

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Typically each new season has aired in April, but this time around viewers will have to wait even longer than usual.

Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss aren't rushing into production for one key reason — the weather. 

"We don't have an air date yet, but this year it'll probably be a little bit later because we're starting [filming] a bit later," Weiss told hosts Jim Norton and Matt Serra on the UFC Unfiltered podcast. "At the end of [season six] winter is here, and that means that sunny weather doesn't really serve our purposes anymore. We've pushed everything down the line so we can get some grim grey weather even [in] the sunnier places that we shoot."

The main "Game of Thrones" sets are located in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland, so it seems prudent to wait for the later months in the year if overcast skies are needed. Keep in mind — this is not an official report from HBO. Weiss and Benioff are just estimating the later start time, but there's no final word.

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The later premiere for season seven would also make sense given that the season won't be the usual ten episodes in length. Benioff and Weiss have estimated that they have 13 episodes left for the entire series — which means filming two shorter seasons. If, for example, season seven is only seven episodes long, pushing back the premiere date by three weeks would keep them on the same finale schedule. 

Though fans may lament the later start date and shorter overall season, we believe this can only be a good thing for viewers at home. "Game of Thrones" has become a better series year over year with bigger budgets and more ambitious battle scenes. With the end in sight, and lots of dragons ready for action, the fandom can expect high quality, explosive episodes to come. 

Game of Thrones HBO TV
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